Development of a biofuel lamp and its comparison with a kerosene lamp
An attempt has been made to explore the suitability of crude Jatropha curcas seed oil (biofuel) as a fuel in substituting fully one of the important petroleum products like Kerosene. Expeller is used for the extraction of oil which is further filtered. This crude oil has a very high viscosity and, as result, cannot flow through capillary action in a standard lamp and, hence, requires viscosity reduction by a trans esterification process to convert it into biodiesel or by any other processes. But this is a complex chemical reaction and the cost of production becomes almost doubled unless glycerine is not recovered as a by-product. Hence, the paper describes the development of a unique lamp (lantern) fuelled by 100% biofuel (crude jatropha oil) for its illumination and its comparative performance with respect to a standard kerosene lamp.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Cape Town
2008
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| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1021-447X2008000200003 |
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| Summary: | An attempt has been made to explore the suitability of crude Jatropha curcas seed oil (biofuel) as a fuel in substituting fully one of the important petroleum products like Kerosene. Expeller is used for the extraction of oil which is further filtered. This crude oil has a very high viscosity and, as result, cannot flow through capillary action in a standard lamp and, hence, requires viscosity reduction by a trans esterification process to convert it into biodiesel or by any other processes. But this is a complex chemical reaction and the cost of production becomes almost doubled unless glycerine is not recovered as a by-product. Hence, the paper describes the development of a unique lamp (lantern) fuelled by 100% biofuel (crude jatropha oil) for its illumination and its comparative performance with respect to a standard kerosene lamp. |
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